questions for topic 12

(try answer the questions, then move the pointer below the question to see the answer)

  1. What change does TH-fronting bring about with respect to the place of articulations of English consonants?
    since the two dental fricatives change to labial and alveolar, there will be no dental consonants any more, so the system of place of articulations will be simpler
  2. Does TH-fronting cause a realizational or a sytemic accent difference between an accent which has it and one which does not?
    it causes a sytemic accent difference: earlier contrasts are lost, earlier minimal pairs become homophones
  3. What is the anticlockwise vowel shift?
    the noticeable tendency in British English that front vowels lower, low vowels become more back, back vowels raise, high back vowels become more front, that is, vowels go around the vowel chart in an anticlockwise direction
  4. What is goat-fronting?
    the change of the goat vowel from earlier [ow] to current [əw], that is, the fronting of the first, vocalic part of this diphthong
  5. What is goose-fronting?
    the change of the goose vowel from earlier [uw] to current [ʉw], that is, the fronting of the first, vocalic part of this diphthong
  6. Do goat- and goose-fronting occur in any environment?
    no, in some varieties of English, goat is [ow] and goose is [uw] before an [l] that is not followed by a vowel within the same word (e.g., goal [gowl], fool [fuwl]
  7. What is L-vocalization?
    [l] becomes [w] when not followed by a vowel: hell [hɛw], held [hɛwd] vs. hello [hɛləw], hellish [hɛlɪʃ]
  8. How do new diphthong phonemes appear in English?
    since we find different allophones of goat and goose before [l] (e.g., in cold or ruled), which may then dissapear (merge into the offglide of the preceding diphthong) the two allophones become phonemes, cold [kowd] vs. code [kəwd]; ruled [ruwd] vs. rude [rʉwd]
  9. Which is the most recent, least widespread change affecting the diphthongs of goat and goose?
    it is the fronting of their glides: goat [əw]→[əj] and goose [ʉw]→[ʉj]

I did well, I’m done
I did poorly, let’s check again